HAINES CITY, Fla. — The catastrophic flooding brought on by Hurricane Fiona has pressured many Puerto Ricans out of their houses. Their households in Polk County stated their family members will want help for months to return.
Norman Ruidiaz is the proprietor of Puerto Rican Juice Bar in Haines City. The juice stand is a little bit style of house away from house.
“I have had the business for one year and a half. I have acai, fruit bowls and smoothies,” Ruidiaz stated.
Ruidiaz stated a lot of his members of the family that also stay in Puerto Rico had been evacuated out of their houses whereas rain from Hurricane Fiona reached historic ranges.
“It’s really, really bad. A lot of people, I tell you, 95% of people I talked to in Puerto Rico lost everything,” he stated.
His family members at the moment are surviving with out electrical energy as a result of Fiona fully knocked out the island’s fragile energy grid.
“Thousands of individuals in the identical state of affairs. Today is the primary day,” Ruidiaz continued. “Day by day I’m certain it is going to be worse, day-to-day. Maybe they gained’t have meals, no transportation.”
Ruidiaz felt like this could not come at a worse time since the island still hasn’t fully recovered from Hurricane Maria. He is now collecting canned goods and supplies to send to the devastated island.
“I have the connection already to transport. These people offer it for free to transport it to Puerto Rico,” he said.
He also plans on donating one dollar of each sale from his juice bar. Yamisbel Garcia was pleased to learn that her smoothie purchase is going to Puerto Rico relief efforts.
“It definitely helps that even us being over here in the United States, there’s still people willing to collaborate and come together to gain funds to send over,” she said.
Sol Relief, a St. Petersburg nonprofit centered on flying assets to areas hit by catastrophe, can be collecting financial donations for Puerto Rico.
“We’re one big community and these are just our neighbors to the south. So if we could continue to consider that, that they are right now in need of our help and our support, we’d really appreciate it,” Sol Relief government director Dr. Harris Ambush stated.